New Fabric!

Oh what a great trip to Anchorage! To visit my favorite quilt shop (Seams Like Home Quilt Shoppe) and see the familiar faces and the new, gorgeous fabrics. Heaven!! Then Sarah arrived with granddaughter Audrey and the *real* fun began :)

Confession: I do not shop for fabric. I have asked (that being the polite way of saying 'forced') Sarah to pick my fabrics for me for years. Last time I went to Quilt Market I just gave her the cash and said "buy what you wanted but didn't get". She always picks the best stuff :)

When I buy fabrics and show my choices to people, they politely force a tight smile and whisper "oh, how nice .." and turn away quickly. It's true. Honest. I am a total loser at picking fabrics. That's why I buy the fat quarter bundles or have someone do it for me. I relied upon Doris, my all time best quilt shop friend, and now Sarah. Hopefully Audrey will take after her mom and have a good eye for color too :)

So anyway, Audrey and I played with the shop toys while Sarah selected my sashing fabrics for the two projects I have in the works now.

The quilt shop owner, Maret, found a minute between class sessions to say "Hi" (she is a total sweetheart) and take a look at my projects and THEN I spied, hidden at the bottom of a rack, my most favorite thing of all - -scrap bags!! Yay! I *love* buying scrap bags! At the counter Sarah spied a bit of left over ribbon with bunnies on it so of course we had to have it. What a wonderful day!

Empty Nest

At what point does "whew, I am so glad I don't have to clean up after them anymore!" turn to "Oh, how I miss the pitter patter of their little feet..."?

My answer - -'not yet'! LOL :) Hehehehe

The baby bunnies went back to their outside home, as healthy as I can get them, my 22 month old granddaughter is home in Anchorage after spending the weekend with me and Tom is fishing in Homer (a long way away). I am......home alone!

Let's see if I can finally be productive. You should see my 'to do' list. I was remembering quilts that I need to finish in my sleep last night. Then there's some painting I've been putting off, cleaning out more stash, scanning photos & backing up computers....

My little helper got me started yesterday before she left....

A few baby days

I made the mistake of being tired and worn out just before spending a weekend with Audrey. At one and three quarters, she has about twenty thousand times the energy that I do! Lucky baby :)

We had fun in the front yard watching people and their kids and dogs walk past the house on their way to the festivities on Third and Fourth Avenues downtown. Here's Audrey reading the instruction book for Sarah's videocam. Can you see the baby foot in the second picture? That's her taking a nap while I work on the computer. Why didn't I sleep then too?

4th of July Weekend in Seward, Alaska

Sarah and Audrey are coming to see me on Thursday, and Audrey will stay with me for a few days. Seward is known for it's 4th of July celebrations, the most famous of which is the Mt. Marathon Race. This internationally known race begins 2 blocks from our house, which is downtown. The race trail goes to the top of Mt. Marathon and down some snow slews and ends back at it's starting point. It's a rough trail race. If you look closely, you can see the trail to the peak in this photo.

Seward is a small town of about 3,500 people. No traffic lights. One main street. Several thousand people will be here for the 4th - even more if there is a cruise ship in port. Fourth Avenue is blocked off completely for about a mile, as is most of Adams Street - the street we live on (seen here). Usually we stock up on groceries in advance and just don't plan on leaving the house because it's almost impossible to do so with the traffic that converges on downtown.

Audrey and I will have a front row seat for the festivities - it should be a blast! Here's a list of the events - if you are coming here please note that the fireworks are on Thursday night not Friday night.

I have not had time to do any more sewing on the Funky Fuzzy Quilt, but I will post as soon as I am able to get back to the project :)

Booties Part Three

I was in Anchorage for a few days and I spent some time with Audrey. I brought up a small bucket of the things she's used to playing with when she is with me, and here's how that went:

She dove into the bucket, first after her necklaces and then ended up dumping the whole bucket onto the coffee table. Then she went for the purse - and she knew exactly what she was fishing around for in there - her cell phone. No, she doesn't have her own phone at the tender age of 1, I just slipped one of non-functioning phones that we have in the house that haven't been recycled yet.

She grabs that thing every time and flings it right into place and wanders around jabbering at the top of her lungs. It's hysterical. Especially when she gets her arms going - I can tell that her mother must gesture a lot when she's on the phone.

I finally talked her into trying on the booties (way too big - what a surprise - lol) and she liked them. After a while she tossed them aside for the bigger version. I am afraid of taking her shoe shopping now..... what have I started?

Booties Part Two

Using the tracing that I took of Audrey's feet and some quilted muslin from a machine quilting class, I cut out my estimation of the pieces. I love estimating and I do it all the time :)

I pinned the pieces together and I could tell right away that I had overestimated! I could put these things on a moose!

I unpinned and trimmed 3/4" off the upper - all the way around except for the heel, which I had already sewn.

I re-pinned and then stitched, using a walking foot - which was a bad idea, it didn't like the bulk, especially at the gathered bulk in the toe area.
I still think that the booties are too big, but I'll wait and see how they fit on Audrey. I would like to inset some cuff material and make them into pull-on slippers. I have some fake suede for bottoms and maybe fleece for the uppers, with a cuff for snugness?

Booties

What happens when you try to hold steady a wiggly giggly baby with one hand and trace around her ticklish feet with the other hand? Chaos. And this kind of scribble:



Heather Bailey has a free pattern for baby booties that I want to try. I'll make a tester first, to see how they fit, and then make a real pair for Audrey. Her feet are quite a bit bigger than the pattern that Heather offers, so I'll modify as I go, using her basic design and tips for construction.

She's Baaaaaack :)

Audrey, my granddaughter, is back with me this weekend. I put most of the quilting stuff away and got out the camera. Knowing your priorities is a good thing. We're going outside to look for some mud puddles to stomp in. See you later!

Laughter

Audrey loved her new hat and although it is a bit big, it wasn't too big, it just has room to grow. We had dinner together, Sarah, Ryan, Tom, Audrey and I and it was the most fun I've had in a while. Audrey likes to take my jewelry and for some reason she decided that removing my eyeglass holder chain was the funniest thing in the world. She laughed, and I laughed just to see her laugh and then we were both laughing just because the other one was. Life just doesn't get any better than that.

Audrey's Hat

I've been working on a secret project....Audrey's Hat. As you can see from Sarah's blog, Audrey loves to put things on her head. Her favorite thing is a tupperware toy that she pretends is her hat. That made me think that maybe I should make her a hat.

This hat had no design or pattern in mind, just play and relief for me after refurbishing kitchen floors everyday. So each day for the past 4 days, I've cut a little, sewn, agonized over fabrics, tossed my stash around and played. I didn't take photos of the process because I didn't think it would work, but I believe that I have a really cute hat here, and I can't wait to give it to Audrey.

It was hard to make it without her here, to test for size. I used the bear, but he's just not the same as a baby girl - lol :)

So, this weekend I shall see Audrey and give her my gift to her, her very own hat. It's a secret though, so if you see her, don't tell!

I am going to make another one and I'll take photos as I go on that one.

Nice Things

Here's the surprise I received for Valentine's Day! They are very lovely and the balloon actually sang a song when you tapped it ~~ I had many visitors to my little office at work who came in to "tap" and listen :)

Granddaughter Audrey liked the balloon (she spent the weekend with ME!) but she wanted the singing balloon to keep it's distance. She loved the soft little bear and took it to bed with her. Bunny ignored the whole thing completely.

When I was single (for about 16 yrs) I used to buy myself flowers and I enjoyed doing it. And balloons too. Sometimes I would fill the house with helium balloons. They used to follow Sarah around and all the kids thought I was a kooky mom :)

Giggles

My daughter uploaded some new photos onto Flickr and I stole this one - I like it. It is of Sarah Raffuse, her husband Ryan (such a nice guy!) and my granddaughter Audrey with a nice clean nose :) hehehehehe I think they were having some fun with the timer option on the camera.

Audrey and the bunny - Final Round!

Well, this one is a draw. After 2 days together they are getting used to each other, and seeing the benefits of friendship. Audrey realizes that if she doesn't reach too fast, she gets to pet the bunny and bunny (not so dumb) quickly figured out who was leaving him small tokens of affection on the floor, like Corn Flakes and globs of banana. Hehehehe. He found them before I did!

So now he warily follows her around, at a safe distance, and she thinks she just added one more admirer to her posse. Happy Days for all of us!

Round Three - Audrey v. Bunny

When I picked up Audrey in Girdwood today (Sarah and I meet aprox. half way between Seward and Anchorage) I asked Sarah for her advice on fabrics for bindings for both the purple scraps quilt and the reproductions quilt. We talked for a few minutes and I agreed with her choice of a white-on-white for the reproductions, and then I commented that I would hopefully have it finished this weekend. Her laughter was loud and long, and I was slightly offended. Her thought was that if I thought that Audrey would leave me with energy or time to quilt, I was indeed, nuts. And she said so, out loud, between laughs.

I hate admitting that I am wrong, but at 10pm tonight (I drove away with Audrey at noonish) I believe that she may be right. How I managed to raise a child and her cousins being a single parent, I just can't remember. I am exhausted. And bunny just came out of hiding.

Audrey finally fell asleep at 9:30 and the only nap she had was on the drive back to Seward. It was a gorgeous day! We had a fun drive and stopped at the property on the way home to feed the "free" bunnies - and I noticed for the second time that the eagles must have gotten one of the little ones.

At home, Audrey immediately sought out bunny, and found him in his usual spot, in our bedroom (he has his own room, which doubles as my quilting room). She stayed about 4 feet from him, and they had a staredown. She did her dance and he glared, giving me "the look".

If you are a pet owner, you know "the look". It's what you get when you take them to the vet for shots or bring and infant into the home. The "why are you subjecting me to this torture?" look.

They left each other alone for about 4 hours and then had the showdown in the kitchen. Bunny came out to assert himself and he backed Audrey all the way up to the kitchen cabinets, where she squeeled and clung to my leg. Then she took action. When he got close enough (overconfident bunny!) she reached down like lightning and touched him on the back!! Whoooooooooeeeeee! He took off, halfway down the hall, and then stood his ground (they don't call them dumb bunnies for nothing). She just toddled on over and did it again! Off he ran, to hide behind the bed, and Ding! Audrey is the winner of round three!

Gramma's gonna collapse and re-prioritize her quilting and move a few deadlines back (don't tell anyone!).

First overnight stay at grandma's house

Audrey stayed overnight at gramma's house and we both had so much fun! She played a full day of "keep gramma running from room to room" and she had a great round of air-sparring with bunny.

Audrey's idea of fun was to run to wherever the bunny was, every 3 minutes, hollering out "bunny" at the top of her lungs. When she located bunny (who has only 3 or 4 hiding places and isn't used to being searched out) she would do her "bunny dance". This consists of hopping from foot to foot while pointing at bunny and hollering "BUNNY!" and laughing.

After about 5 hours, bunny decided to take action. He advanced on her by a foot! Ohhhhh, did she squeal! And she backed up exactly 1 foot. Hehehehehe, betcha you can see where this is going. Bunny backed her up, through the hallway, the kitchen and into the living room - 12 inches at a time. I about peed my pants laughing so hard. Bunny advance - Audrey squeal - Audrey dance backwards 1 foot - repeat.

But wait, you don't think bunny won do you? She won round 2 when he went back to his room, thinking himself victorious and parked in his favorite spot - the doorway. She danced down that hallway and touched him on the nose!

Ha ha ha ha ha! Bunny jumped a foot into the air and took off to hide behind the bed! Ding. Round three is the weekend of January 19th when Audrey comes back for another weekend. Let's see who wins this time!